[News] Gaza, Israelis are Gone but their Ghosts Remain
Anti-Imperialist News
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Thu Sep 14 11:48:06 EDT 2006
http://www.aljazeerah.info/14%20o/One%20Year%20After%20'Disengagement'%20from%20Gaza,%20Israelis%20are%20Gone%20but%20their%20Ghosts%20Remain%20By%20Rami%20Almeghari.htm
One Year After 'Disengagement' from Gaza, Israelis are Gone but their
Ghosts Remain
By Rami Almeghari
Al-Jazeerah, September 14, 2006
Bloodshed, destruction and fear are the remnants of the Israeli
occupation army across the Gaza Strip since the Israeli settlers were
evacuated on September 12, 2005 army. A year has passed since the
Israeli 'disengagement' from Gaza, and since then there remains only
the Israeli occupation's ghost, moving from one place to another
throughout the Gaza Strip -- home to 1.3 million Palestinians, one of
the most crowded places on earth.
In myths we learned that a ghost can never kill, but instead
sabotages one's life by haunting its victims - causing panic, leaving
no room for peaceful sleep. The role of ghosts in mythology has
become the reality of the Gaza Strip.
Israel's ghost for the past year of 'no-occupation' is still casting
fear, panic and destruction everywhere in Gaza, starting from the
northernmost city of Beit Hanoun down to Beit Lahia, from eastern
Gaza City to the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Maghazi, and from
Khez'a town to Rafah in the south.
The ghost, which lies on the borders of this most-densely populated
part of the world, has been causing a great deal of devastation to
Gaza's human beings, infrastructure and economy, since September 12, 2005.
The populated parts of Gaza are empty of a single Israeli soldier;
they have all disappeared from the sight of ordinary Gazans, yet
these Gazans are still being victimized by these soldiers' ghosts.
Right after the disengagement, Israeli jetfighters hovered in the
Gaza sky, as an apparent reminder that they indication that they
still existed. They spread panic every day and night by their 'sonic
booms', that sound like bombs, on a daily and nightly basis.
In addition, the Israeli army created a one-kilometer deep buffer
zone in the northern Gaza Strip, under the pretext of preventing
Palestinian resistance groups from firing homemade rockets at nearby
Israeli towns.
Israeli warplanes and drones committed a series of extra-judicial
assassinations -- targeted killings, claiming the lives of dozens of
Palestinians, including dozens of innocent women, men and children.
Also, throughout the past year, the Israeli occupation's ghost kept
control over the main Gaza border crossing points, such as the Rafah
crossing terminal (which is now observed by European observers), and
the Karni and Sofa commercial crossings, thus having complete control
over the movement of people and goods alike, and turning the Gazans
into puppets controlled by this invisible hand.
This ghost also interfered in Palestinian politics, by rejecting the
outcome of the Palestinian elections -- elections which were judged
to be the most democratic in the Middle East, which brought to power
the Hamas movement on January 25, 2006 -- just four months after
disengagement.
So tax money due to the newly-elected Palestinian government has been
withheld by Israel since January. The ghost's finger has gestured to
others to take the same stand, and international aid has been cut to
the entire population, in an attempt to undermine the Palestinian
political system as well.
Israel's rejection of the electoral outcome has pushed the
Palestinian economy to the brink of collapse, with crossings closed
and 160,000 Palestinian government employees having received no
salaries since March.
Shortly before mid 2006, after 8 months of disengagement, the ghost's
intrusion into Palestinian life in Gaza has reached a climax, as the
Israeli occupation army stepped up its attacks on all parts of Gaza
areas including Gaza's shore, where a 7-member family, including
women and children, were killed in cold blood by Israeli fire.
In June 2006, the Israeli undercover units abducted two Palestinian
brothers inside the Palestinian borders in Rafah city, instigating
some Palestinian resistance groups to retaliate by infiltrating into
Israeli borders and killing two Israeli soldiers while abducting a third.
This unprecedented attack on an Israeli army base inside Israeli
borders to the south of Rafah has led to the apex of Israeli army
attacks on the Gaza Strip, known as 'Summer Rain' (the codename for
the current Israeli military operation in various parts of the Gaza
Strip). With 'Summer Rain', the ghost has materialized as a physical
apparition -- and unlike the ghosts of mythology, this apparition can
kill, with complete impunity.
From June 27 until this very moment, Israeli soldiers are killing
humans, destroying homes and uprooting trees throughout Gaza. The
Israeli occupation army has killed more than 250 Palestinian men,
women and children, wounded more than 1000 others, devastated Gaza's
power plant, bridges, ministerial buildings, farms and houses, thus
leaving the population of 1.4 million people without electricity. It
is as if the people of Gaza are living in the stone age -- a time
when people actually believed in such things as ghosts.
The Freedom Archives
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